Partner Article

Hargreaves enjoys record profits

Industrial group Hargreaves Services has offset a dip in revenues with record profits and is now targeting new opportunities across Europe.

The North East giant said its profits soared 20.6% to £14.7m in the six months to November 2009 while revenues plunged 28.6% to £211.6m.

The Esh Winning-based company - which supplies products and services to the energy, mineral and waste sectors - blamed falling commodity prices for the drop in revenue but said strong trading across the group, particularly from speciality coals.

A company statement said the second half of the firm’s financial year would see it focus its efforts on accelerating the development of trading activities in mainland Europe.

“We are excited by the opportunities presented by the more stable market conditions and having established Hargreaves Carbon Products NV in Belgium, we will now seek to accelerate the growth of that business by leveraging our very successful UK specialty coal model and our successful coke and mineral trading operation in Germany,” the statement said.

“A key part of this growth will be the establishment of an operation and stockyard in Poland, to supply specialty coals and to leverage UK supply relationships to import power station coals into the rapidly evolving Polish market

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .